History
The Evergreen State College-Tacoma program was created by Dr. Maxine Mimms, a faculty member at Evergreen, who overheard Tacoma locals talking about Evergreen and that way it wasn’t servicing their community. Taking this to heart, Mimms enlisted the help of her neighbor Elizabeth Diffendal, another Evergreen faculty member, and the two began teaching students around their kitchen tables.
In the Evergreen-Tacoma program the average age for undergraduates is 38, and most are women and people of color. It’s estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of Evergreen-Tacoma students have been involved with the criminal justice system. While a 2014 study showed that, nation-wide, only 1 in 3 returning students earned a degree, 4 in 5 Evergreen-Tacoma students have gotten their diplomas and ⅔ within the first two years. Many of the students go onto employment, graduate school or professional school within a year of graduating.
1970’s:
1972: Recognizing a need to serve her Tacoma community, Maxine Mimms begins teaching a handful of students around her kitchen table with the help of her neighbor and fellow Evergreen faculty member, Elizabeth Diffendal.
1972-1976: Mimms and Diffendal teach the Evergreen-Tacoma seminar around their kitchen tables until the program grew too large to fit and the program moves first to the Tacoma Urban League.
1978 - 1979: Tacoma program moves to the Puyallup Tribal Center.
1979-1980: Tacoma program moves to the Tacoma Community House.
1980’s:
1980: Tacoma program moves to the Colored Women’s Clubhouse.
1981: Tacoma program moves to the Tacoma Opportunities Industrialization Center.
1982: Evergreen Tacoma program is recognized as an official campus of Evergreen and finds its new home officially at 12th and Martin Luther King Way in Tacoma.
1983: Evergreen Tacoma has served 150 BA graduates. It holds first day of classes as an official part of The Evergreen State College and the next year, the program is officially added to the Evergreen budget. Because of this, the state requires the program to down-size to serving only juniors and seniors rather than serving all four years. The state does not want to fund both Evergreen-Tacoma and Tacoma Community College.
1984: Maya Angelou speaks at Evergreen-Tacoma
1985: Evergreen-Tacoma partners with Tacoma Community College to create the Tacoma Bridge Program
1990’s:
1990: Maxine Mimms retires and hands the directorship over to Dr. Wintonnette Joye Hardiman
2000’s:
2001: Evergreen Tacoma finds permanent home on 6th Ave.
2007: Dr. Hardiman retires and faculty member, Dr. Artee Young, becomes Interim Director.
2012: Dr. Young returns to faculty status. Dr. Tyrus Smith takes over as Interim Director.
2015: Evergreen purchases the Tacoma campus, after renting it for fourteen years.
2018: The Lyceum Hall is renamed the Dr. Maxine Mimms & Dr. W. Joye Hardiman Lyceum Hall.
2019: Dr. Marcia Tate Arunga becomes first ever Tacoma Dean.